A plainclothes Baltimore police officer shot and wounded a 13-year-old boy who ran from police Wednesday as he carried a BB-gun replica of a semiautomatic handgun on the first anniversary of rioting that swept west Baltimore, police officials said.

The teen is expected to survive wounds to his lower extremities, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said at a news conference.

Two intelligence detectives were driving on a street and saw the teen walking with what looked like a handgun, and the officers approached him.

“They identified themselves as police officers to this young man, [and] the young man took off on foot with the gun in his hand,” Davis said.

The officers chased him for about 150 yards to the area of the unit block of Asquith Street where one of the officers fired. The gun mimics a Beretta semiautomatic pistol and Davis defended the officers’ actions.

“I put my own eyes on it. It’s an absolute, identical replica semiautomatic pistol,” Davis said. “Those police officers had no way of knowing that it was not an actual firearm.”